When I first started painting, I didn't have a clue on where to lay out my colors on the palette or distinguish between a cool and warm version of the same color. I ended up with multiple blue paint tubes that would eventually turn out to be all warm blues once I learned the difference. That's where a color chart comes in handy!

It's been some time since my last post and I have not had enough time to devote to new paintings so I started some quick sketches these days. You can view most of them at my watercolor journal.

I usually paint fruits or flowers as the subject of my paintings but these days I've decided to change my subjects and turn away from still life. I desperately wanted to paint something colorful and that's when I stumbled upon some images of lovebirds. Lovebirds are gorgeous and they have a color scheme similar to mangoes with hues of yellow, orange and green.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a Lifetime"

A series of unfortunate circumstances have occurred in my life toward the end of December (which is why you've probably seen a decline in blog posts.) I apologize for the lack of art updates but please follow me on Facebook or Instagram for brief photo updates. The string of events that occurred in December allowed me to realize that not many know how to "fish for himself/herself"

With my newfound journals lately, I find myself eager to sketch and brimming with colorful ideas. Usually, I paint apples or flowers but I have been leaning toward painting animals or landscapes these days.

The past few posts have been about keeping an art journal so I want to expand on that and share with you a new brand of art journals that I came across. Stillman & Birn are the only journals that focus on paper quality and an artist's needs. Usually people praise Moleskine journals since they're heavily toted around in the art world. Moleskines are great (and I have been using one since 2013) but I dislike how the paper buckled in my watercolor folio album.

A few posts ago, I blogged about the current palettes in my studio and how I love big mixing spaces. Well, today I stopped by a local art store (Davinci Artist Supply) and stumbled upon this giant beautiful porcelain palette that resembled the Tom Lynch Porcelain Palette without all the brush holders. I had extreme difficulty resisting the urge to just pull out my money and walk out the door with it given that porcelain palettes are usually $50+ for any size over 12"

In a previous post here, I mentioned the American Journey Porcelain Palette from Cheap Joe's and it arrived a few weeks back but I didn't get a chance to post about it since I've been getting sick lately.

I really like the clear plastic cover it came with. It make it much more pleasant to look at than the Stephen Quiller palette cover. Time to fill with paints!

The golden rule about palettes is that there is no perfect palette. The type of palette you use is completely up to personal preference! I would like to note that I am not a palette addict...I just haven't found the one yet.

There are three main types of palettes: plastic, metal and porcelain/ceramic.